CANNES, France — As major companies reduce their investments in children’s intellectual property, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine emerges as a viable solution for cost-cutting, accelerating production, improving quality, and exploring new formats, shared Rob Di Figlia, Business Development Director at Epic Games, during a presentation at MipJunior on Saturday.
He highlighted a variety of clips from significant projects utilizing Unreal Engine, including the Academy Award-winning “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko,” “Piece by Piece,” and “Predator: Killer of Killers”.
During the unveiling, Di Figlia presented a sneak peek of a 90-second cinematic trailer from Beta, entirely crafted with Unreal Engine, which was introduced at Unreal Fest. This teaser will be part of a free animation sample project created in collaboration with Agora Studios, designed for animators to see a diverse range of work. According to Di Figlia, the sample will be released by Agora in the coming weeks.
Unreal Engine, renowned for powering “Fortnite,” gained acclaim for its virtual production techniques in “The Mandalorian.” During MipJunior’s Epic Games session titled “Fast, Fresh, Unreal: Real-Time Kids Animation Is Here,” Di Figlia asserted that Unreal Engine holds significant relevance in animation, comparable to its impact on live-action films.
“When I began my journey with Unreal Engine in 2019, there were likely fewer than five animation studios leveraging Unreal meaningfully. Today, that number has exceeded 100,” Di Figlia remarked at MipJunior.
“The success of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ truly highlighted our capabilities. However, animation has become an intense focus for us, witnessing substantial growth over the past five years, especially among series animation studios that are shifting from traditional CG methods to real-time solutions,” he added.
He attributed this trend to growing demands for efficiency, creativity, and economic considerations. “The entertainment landscape is evolving towards more interactive and immersive experiences,” Di Figlia continued.
“Animation companies have long faced pressure to achieve more with diminishing resources each year,” Di Figlia noted, emphasizing that Unreal dramatically reduces rendering times from days or weeks to mere seconds, thus accelerating production workflows.”
At MipJunior, Di Figlia cited Pure Imagination and Zebu as studios that are successfully utilizing Unreal Engine for standard animated TV series production.
“They’re achieving up to a 20% increase in speed for their typical 22-minute kids series, cutting production time down from 60-70 weeks to just 42-50 weeks. That translates into significant time savings,” Di Figlia observed.
Nevertheless, the ways studios harness these advantages can differ. “Some studios report a 20% reduction in production time. Others indicate that while their overall timeline remains the same, they can achieve greater storytelling clarity and production value, effectively yielding 20% more output on existing budgets. These shifts are where the industry is transforming, especially with AI involvement, which we observe clients integrating with Unreal Engine in exciting new ways,” he explained.
Unreal Engine also helps animation studios lower storage costs by minimizing reliance on compositing and reducing the need for extensive render farms.
Di Figlia also highlighted the artistic advantages of using Unreal Engine. Traditionally, directors spend months developing their narratives in the storyboard phase before passing them to animation artists, often delaying the visualization of the final product to a point where changes could become costly or impractical.
With Unreal Engine, directors experience a creative playground that allows them to experiment with lighting and design decisions early in the process, enabling clearer communication downstream and ultimately defining artistic directions much sooner. “When all departments collaborate from the start and work in tandem, it erases the boundaries between pre-production, production, and post-production, fostering a fluid pipeline throughout the project,” Di Figlia elaborated.
“All your artists can collaborate with different departments within the same environment, which unlocks a new level of teamwork previously unheard of,” he added.
A significant highlight for Epic Games and Unreal Engine was the recognition of “War Is Over!” winning the 2024 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, produced by ElectroLeague with animation and visual effects handled by Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based VFX firm, Wētā FX.
Di Figlia reflected on this achievement: “That project exemplifies our iterative process, where they were able to rapidly refine their storytelling within the engine to achieve a satisfying final product.”
Unreal Engine also played a pivotal role in “Piece by Piece,” an animated comedic bio-documentary directed by Morgan Neville, presented through the lens of Lego animation, featuring American musician Pharrell Williams, marking the sixth film in the theatrical Lego series.
Produced by 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Davis Entertainment, “Predator: Killer of Killers” represents a “big, stylistic film,” noted Di Figlia. The Third Floor, which collaborated with Disney on this project, achieved incredible efficiency with lighting and rendering teams completing shots in as little as four hours, including just an hour for retakes. By the time they presented final shots to the studio, they had accomplished the remarkable feat of finalizing 1,700 shots in under two months, Di Figlia emphasized.
